Virginia Senate approves electric chair amid drug shortage

RICHMOND, Va., March 7 (Reuters) - The Virginia state Senate
on Monday approved a bill making the electric chair the default
method of execution if lethal injection drugs are unavailable.

The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate by a 22-17
vote. The Republican-dominated House has already approved the
measure.

After a lower chamber vote on a minor amendment, the measure
will go to Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe for approval. A
spokesman for the governor said the measure would be reviewed
when it arrived.

Virginia is one of eight states that allows electrocution as
a method of execution, letting condemned inmates choose between
it and lethal injection. If they do not choose, lethal injection
is used.

Virginia, along with other states, has struggled to get
lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies have
protested their use in executions.

The last death row inmate in Virginia to choose the electric
chair for execution was in 2013.

Inmate Ricky Gray, who killed six people in Richmond in
2006, had been scheduled for execution on March 16, adding
urgency to the legislative debate.

Gray's execution has been postponed by the 4th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court
about whether to hear the case.

Gray has not indicated which method of execution he
preferred.

The legislation has fueled debate in Virginia over whether
capital punishment, especially the electric chair, constitutes
cruel and unusual punishment.

"The electric chair is outdated and barbaric," Senator Scott
Surovell, a Democrat from northern Virginia, said during a floor
debate.

He lost an effort to amend the bill by requiring the
Virginia Department of Corrections to explain in detail why it
was not able to obtain lethal drugs before opting for
electrocution.

State Senator Mark Obenshain, a Republican from the
Shenandoah Valley, argued that if the amendment passed it would
have further delayed execution of death row inmates.

"Some (people) just have black hearts. They're beyond
redemption," said Obenshain, an unsuccessful Republican
candidate for state attorney general in 2013.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Bernard Orr)